Over the past several decades, the SHOF has created an expanded scholarship program that has fostered greater outreach and assisted many up-and-coming songwriters. Learn more about current and past scholars below.

Abe Olman, for whom the scholarship program is named, was both a major figure in the music publishing community and a songwriter himself, in addition to being one of the founders of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Abe Olman Scholarships given out each year are made possible by his family in the interest of encouraging and supporting the careers…
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A new scholarship program was announced in 2011, along with a collaboration between the Songwriters Hall of Fame and NYU Steinhardt’s Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. The NYU Steinhardt Songwriting Scholar Award is presented to a music composition student whose work holds great potential for success in the field, and embodies the art, craft, individuality and qualities of…
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The Holly Prize is an award made possible by Songmasters and administered and juried by the SHOF as a tribute to the legacy of SHOF inductee Buddy Holly. Since 2010, the Holly Prize annually recognizes and supports a new “all-in-one songwriter “— an exceptionally talented and inspired young musician/singer/songwriter whose work exhibits the qualities of Holly’s music: true, great and original. …
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I was honored in 2002 with the Abe Olman Scholarship, and I needed that money back then. Working out of any studio I could find trying to make a demo and get a record deal, the scholarship helped me record some of those songs, and Im really grateful. John Legend

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Songwriters Hall of Fame’s ongoing mission is to celebrate and honor the contributions of our great popular music songwriters who have written the soundtrack for our nation’s history, while developing new writing talent through workshops, showcases, and digital initiatives.